We all know about blank panels (also known as knockout plugs, or blanking plugs): Those placeholder trim pieces and caps that serve as a constant reminder of all options that you were too cheap to get.

I recently took the SLK into the local Mercedes dealership for service (don’t ask), and received a loaner 2017 C300 for my efforts. I was genuinely surprised when I got in and found myself surrounded by a sea of blank panels. There was one on each door, indicating the absence of the ventilated seat option, and a bunch more on the center console.

Maybe it is just because I always buy my cars fully loaded, but I haven’t seen these on a new car for years. With flexible manufacturing and the virtually unlimited number of variations afforded by injection molding, I had assumed that blank panels were a thing of the past, especially on premium makes like Mercedes Benz.

The one on the door seemed to be particularly bothersome: How hard would it have been to make the heated seat button wide enough to fill the entire opening for vehicles without the ventilated seats? Probably not too much more than the cost of the blank panel, I would guess.

So what are the worst poverty-spec blank panels you have seen? As always, I’ll start things off with one from one my recent posts: The blank panels you got on the Chevy Corvair if you opted not to spend the $15 for backup lights, like the one above.

173 Comments

The Honda/Acura ones aren’t the greatest. You can instantly tell something should have been there and isn’t!

The Granada that my friend had in the 80’s with the deleted radio was pretty bad too. A huge piece of mismatched woodgrain – yikes! Oh – and anytime a clock wasn’t ordered on a mid 70’s Chevelle it looked ridiculous – and cheap!

Let me help you out there, Tom. As one who bought the strippedest of the stripper Kia Sedonas a few years ago, I get to look at one of these panels regularly. This picture from the internet shows the console that mounts near the rear view mirror. It would contain buttons to control the power doors, power tailgate and sunroof – If my car had any of these things.

The big panel is for a drop-down mirror (standard) and the twin map lights (also standard) are at the front. Without those two standard features, this panel would be a real downer.

I wonder how many fall into this category?: my brother’s Renault R26.r had a heated rear window switch, with tell-tale LED, which came on when you pressed it, but no heated rear window – it was plastic, not glass

Yes, and until that internet came along, there were a great many small but vital things that were made of that hitherto nameless material, leaving one to feel as if stuck in some Confucian proverb; what is it that we so need but that cannot be found because we do not know what it is? Thank you for naming it, Nate.

Btw, the small but vital things of unobtainium were nearly always electrical, of a bizarre and thus irreplaceable design, out of production, once made in England, and the cause of an otherwise finished automotive project becoming a mossy garden monument.

As my memory would seem to have peaked, my replace-all invention for words now known as the unlocatables – and they’re a basket of unlocatables now – is “patoonga” or “patunga”, as in “Where’s the…patunga for the phone?” (charger), or “Damn it, there is no…patunga in here!” (toilet paper), etc.

When I moved to California I learned to use ‘chingadero’ in the same way .

-Nate

Scott McPherson (aka NZ Skyliner)

Posted July 18, 2017 at 1:47 PM

Actually justy baum, ‘Patunga’ is a real word from the Maori language, and means “victim, beating, hitting, killing, assault”. The Maori people were the first to discover and settle in New Zealand, around 1300AD. And in a sort-of CC-effect, Patunga is the name of the farm that surrounds our property here in New Zealand!

That C300 is missing the whole “mouse” above the wheel in the center console, perhaps (I might be wrong) either because it lacks Burmester audio (door speaker grilles would be silver with “Burmester” logo instead of black) or the multimedia/navigation package. I wouldn’t expect a loaner to have either.

That loaner is also more likely the model that a person leasing would get. It is a quick way of telling if that used car you are looking at is off-lease or a trade in. They say that the average leased luxury model has the fewest options, all in an effort to reduce the monthly lease payments. When the cars come off lease, they do not have the appeal on the used market as a truly owned car, but those non-leased vehicles don’t hit the used car lots as quickly.

That’s not always true in some cases. The cost of the option for the lease is the difference between adding the option to the new car, and the increase in resale value at the end of the lease. For some options, those two can be basically the same, making the option “free” for the leaser. This is especially true for options that can make the resulting used car harder to move, like a manual transmission (sorry to say).

Car rental places have also figured this out, which is why some rentals can be surprisingly well equipped.

The loaners at my dealer are generally well equipped- nav, CarPlay and so on. I assume because they are sold on after 6 months or so, so they spec them to make them easier to move. Either that or to convince the person servicing their car that the next one should have more features. Or both.

2013 Tacoma – I do not mind these blanks. Like JPC says above, they’re a sign that I got the vehicle I wanted without being sold stuff (TRD package) I did not want.

(Note): The RSCA Off button turns off the Roll Sensing Curtain Airbag, a sensor in the side curtain bags related to roll over, intended to be used in off road situations involving a high degree of sideways slope. Yea right… I hope I never see the need for that and if I do, It’ll be too late to find and press the button.

2015 Checking in…filling those blanks from the factory set you back about $12k on the high end, IIRC.

Good news is there’s lots of things in the aftermarket to put there. One supplier even sells switches that have the labels screen printed on the face of the switch for things like fog lights, air compressors and even ‘zombie lights’.

I would think you are the winner, so far. How hard would it have been to make a “stripper” panel with no indentations even if it might have looked like a blob? I mean, it wasn’t like you bought the only low spec van KIA ever made.

Having owned several low and mid line spec Hondas and Acuras, it’s amazing that there are so many blankoff plugs unless you buy the ne plus ultra/ super duper top spec model. Sometimes it seems like they add upper level models so that they can continue to make you embarrassed to drive a cheaper model.

I like to think of it this way: In the event I should ever decide to accessorize my ride with flame emitters or oil dumpers or other imaginative inventions, I have lots of places to mount the switches. 🙂

My Mom’s 2000 Nissan Quest had this one, which I believe was some sort of alarm related button if so equipped. When I was a kid I used to try pressing it real hard expecting something to happen. 10 year old me would leave fingerprints all over that glossy Mercedes delete plate!

We had the same sort of set up in our ’86 Audi 5000S. A dash full of button slots, the vast majority of which were blanks with no function whatsoever. Imagine this, but with a 4-button quadrant instead of the trip computer next to the vents (I cannot recall what, if anything, those buttons did…). Also no fogs so that was a blank on the row below. I wonder if on the top-spec model all those buttons actually had a purpose?

Vestigial/missing clocks are even worse when they have their own instrument binnacle. Our stripper ’69 Cutlass had one of those. This photo is of a ’68 Cutlass, but it’s pretty close to what I remember.

Some ’70s/80s GMs – the “squarebody” trucks, Chevettes and G-Series vans (those last two using the same instrument cluster) had a small gas gauge if you optioned a clock or tachometer, a HUGE speedometer-sized gas gauge if you didn’t.

It looks like you have a big gas gauge AND another hole to fill with a completely blank gauge.

Regarding the trucks, I’ve never seen one with a clock there, and the tachs are exceedingly rare to say the least. Dodge put the gas gauge in place of the tach frequently in the 80s and 90s as well, but tachs were a lot more common than they were in the Chevy pickups so it was always kind of jarring to see one so equipped.

The blankout plate on later model Vegas without a/c. I’m actually not sure when they stopped with the little cubbyhole, or if it was a trim level/option. My ’71 had the cubby, and it was quite useful, given my car lacked a glove compartment.

I cant find an Image but some 60’s Ramblers made you really sorry you didn’t order the optional radio and clock. Knockouts for the dial, selector buttons and knobs. Some 50’s Chrysler’s had ugly radio delete fillers as well.

The big rectangular block off plate on top of the door panels where the window switches would be on my base 2004 Titan is probably the most unsightly panel. If the door panels were black instead of beige the big gaps around it would probably be less sloppy looking.

The instrument panel does have full gauges including tach, so no blank windows on it. Does does have a round plug where the 4wd switch would be, but it’s silver in color and blends in pretty well.

My old 1970 C10 did have the optional gauge package, but still had a large round panel with markings between the speedo and fuel gauge that was for a clock or tach, and had 4 smaller round panels, had temp, oil pressure and amp gauges. The 4th round panel with markings was still blank, I believe it was for a optional vacuum gauge.

That same instrument cluster was used on the C-50-60-70 medium duty trucks, and if yours had air brakes (believe it or not, a factory option) the small extra round panel held an air pressure gauge. Biggest problem with that generation of cluster was there were NO numerical markings on anything other than the speedo and tach (if so equipped). All the auxiliary gauges were nothing more than hash marks.

I don’t have much experience with blanking panels as Ford is willing to spend money to not have them.

For example on the Panthers in many years power pedals and traction control were options. Their switches are placed on a piece of dash trim that goes beneath the instrument cluster on the left of the steering wheel. Ford had 4 molds for that panel. One for cars w/o no options, one for w/power pedals but no TC, one for with TC but w/o power pedals and one for with TC and power pedals. Despite the fact that it appears that the power pedal and TC switch would fit in the same opening they did not share panels as each switch had a key in a unique spot and a place molded into the back side for the unused connector(s). Ditto for the lack of heated seats on the Town Cars, the piece of trim on the door panel was different so there did not need to be a blanking plate.

In cases where they didn’t do a unique piece they often found a way to make the lack of the option useful. Case in point are my 2006 F250 and 2009 E150. They had integrated trailer brake controllers and/or upfitter switch banks as an option. Instead of just covering the hole they created a storage spot. So instead of staring at a blanking plate in my low option XL I have cubby holes where I store a flashlight, carpenter’s pencils, pens ect.

However there are a couple of places where I do have blanking plates in my Ford products. One is our Mountaineer where they shared the radio/HVAC bezel with the Explorer. Since the Mountaineer was either RWD or AWD there was no need for the switches used in the 4wd Explorers. At least they are dummy buttons rather than just a plate in a hole so it doesn’t bother me too much. The other is our Escape Hybrid which lacks the Stability and Traction Control as well as the 100v power outlet. So there is a blanking plate for the button but it is tucked under the HVAC controls and not really seen. However they did spend the money for a unique console for vehicles w/ and w/o the outlet.

That’s true, I was surprised to see on 94-97 Thunderbirds and Cougars without power locks – which is extremely rare, as even the most base option group had power locks – they had unique door switch plates. Same with manual seats, very rare(particularly driver side) they had unique trim plates without the switch cutouts. You wouldn’t even see those if they did use blanks!

Same applies to the “useful” deletes, Mustangs, Taurus, Thunderbird often had 3 DIN slots in the 90s. Top usually was climate control and the bottom two were stereo related, one the main head unit and the one below either a graphic equalizer or a slave CD player. If you didn’t spring for the high level audio option, instead of a crappy delete plate you got a very useful storage cubby, and pull out cup holders in the Taurus. Of lesser use Ford would also use “coin holders” in place of oval switches for things like fog lights and convertible tops, common in all 94-04 Mustangs and 94-96 Tbird’s and Cougars

I also forgot about the fact that they did two separate pieces for the front passenger door panels on the lesser Panthers, w/power passenger seat and w/o.

Steering wheels are another spot that Ford was willing to spend money to avoid the blanking plate. For many years they have had 3 steering wheels. Nothing, Cruise only, Cruise plus Audio and/or HVAC and/or Sync. In the early years the cruise switches were balanced on both spokes for the Cruise only while they were all together on the left if it had additional controls. The late 00’s early 10’s changed that using the same cruise switches across alll versions, but no blanking plate on the right. For the vehicles that had just audio controls but not Sync they installed stops on the same basic switch so they could only be pressed on the right side. So Vol is the top two buttons w/o Sync but with Sync Vol is the top button and you can push it on the left as well as the right. Fills up all of the buttons w/o the need for blanks and to make that work it only needs the stops, move some resistors around on the circuit board (and leave a few out) and label accordingly.

They may have changed that a bit recently–on the ’13-’16 Fusions there are two instrument panel designs, based on whether you have the “basic” Sync (physical speedometer and tach plus one digital panel) or the fancier MyFordTouch setup (physical speedometer plus two digital panels, one of which defaults to tach).No matter which setup you have, the steering wheel still has two small d-pads, one on each spoke. If you have the dual digital panels it’s one d-pad for each, if you have one digital panel the right-hand d-pad controls the Sync display screen instead (duplicating the functionality of the physical buttons in the center console stack). While it does give you a redundant set of controls, it looks more balanced than a blank spot and costs less to tool for.

roger628

Posted July 18, 2017 at 9:01 PM

Evidently Ford has a long history of this extra attention to detail. Behold this rare-as-hens-teeth no-option 72 T-Bird. Evidently, the early production ones didn’t even have a remote mirror standard, instead you a got low-rent chrome rectangle as on a Maverick. They eventually relented and made a Lincoln-type remote standard. But imagine if they had done it the cheap way, what a plethora of plugs there might have been. This panel also included the seat and window controls. Strangely, not the locks, as these were plunger-operated in ’72. Consumer complaints led them to restore the lock switch in ’73.

Scoutdude

Posted July 19, 2017 at 10:08 PM

Yeah but that window crank definitely doesn’t look like it belongs being so close to that button and watch how you grab that knob as those trim pieces are right in the swing.

This radio delete plate came with my 79 Century Turbo Coupe when I purchased it from the original owner in 2007. It was not installed, but in it’s place was a crappy aftermarket radio. Didn’t like the looks or the performance of the radio so for awhile I reinstalled it until I purchased a correct Delco AM/FM Stereo radio. This car had a sticker of almost 9K. Hard to believe that he wouldn’t just cough up the extra money for a factory radio.

Especially when, in the days of the GM windshield antennas, they also deleted that, so you had no choice but to get a mast-type antenna on a car that wasn’t really designed for it. Either that or get a new windshield.

So when you think about it, instead of GM giving you a $3 antenna that wouldn’t be used, and barely noticed, they went to the trouble and expense of deleting it from a handful of windsheilds just to punish the radio delete crowd for not buying the factory radio. Sounds like the old GM that I remember.

I wonder how much GM saved by ‘punishing’ those people who declined a radio and got no windshield antenna. Ironically, those people may have made out better since those windshield antennas were notorious for being utter crap, especially when the windshield wipers were on. I don’t think they lasted longer than one model cycle and I doubt anyone was sorry to see them go.

IIRC, the windshield antenna was actually championed by none other than John Delorean.

“Those placeholder trim pieces and caps that serve as a constant reminder of all options that you were too cheap to get.”

Or in some cases, a reminder of what the original owner was either too cheap to spring for or didn’t want. Since I’ve never had a new car and probably never will, I have to take what I can get at the price point I can afford. To whit: my 2007 Focus wagon that I bought in spring last year for $5,500 did not have cruise control and no working a/c. When you’re not rich, you take the leftovers of other and are grateful to even get that much.

All good points. And I really AM grateful to have gotten that Focus because that was just the car I was looking for, and the original owner kept it in pristine condition so it’s probably the best car I’ve ever had.

My 86 Ford F150 had a panel just above the radio, as wide as the radio and almost as tall. It’s only purpose was to display what trim package you bought. At the top of the line it proudly displayed XLT. Mid level proudly displayed XL. At the bottom was the poverty spec Custom. It didn’t say anything. BLANK. Why spend money on a badge that says you bought the cheap one when a blank panel screams it. I glued a picture of a topless girl lying on the beach over it. Much better.

So THAT’S what that button does…er, doesn’t do?
I bought a Crown Victoria Police Interceptor about 18 months ago, and whoever drove the car before me set all the mirrors and seat/pedals at the right place for me. I did notice 2 identical looking round buttons soon after buying it, but never pushed either one to see if they were functional. The button on the dash is marked, it’s “twin” on the door is not. I did notice that nothing happens when the door button is pushed.

Wish I had gotten a car with cruise control instead of power adjusted pedals.

The trunk release on the door is sometimes present on the Police CVs and sometimes it is covered with a plug, either way the wiring is present on most years and you can install the switch from a civilian CV or GM. I did that on mine that didn’t’ come with one. Chance are yours is just unplugged. The other thing about the trunk switch wiring on the police CV is that there are two plugs for the switch on the dash, one that only works when the key is on and one that works all the time. The panel just pulls off and swap the plug.

Cruise control and power pedals are easy to add to the CVPI. I did both on my Daughter’s 03. The wiring is all there for both options. The problem is the Cruise is integrated into the engine computer on the 05 and up drive by wire vehicles. In those those you install the steering wheel and have the PCM reflashed, with the cruise calibration. On the earlier cars like my Daughter’s it was $35 at the Pick and Pull for a wheel with switches and the servo/computer and its bracket. Total install time is under 30 minutes. I think I spent a similar amount for the power brake and throttle pedals and the piece of dash with the switch. The hardest part of that install is freeing the motor connector from the harness.

But the 04 and down ends up being cheaper if you shop the self serve wrecking yards as the used servo is way cheaper than getting the PCM reflashed unless you happen to have the right tools and a subscription. Not sure why it isn’t something that you can just switch on and off or select like tire size, dark mode, DRLs, or tire pressures.

How ’bout yesterday’s pic (<– that's a link) of a couple of Australian Fiat X1/9s with crude blankoff plates for the US-market front sidemarker light/reflectors…with rest-of-world turn signal repeaters crudely hacked thereinto, apparently by the factory.

The ’77-’90 “box” Caprices had a giant blankoff (which you can see here) on the passenger side of the dashboard, above the glovebox. That’s where the airbag was going to go when bags became mandatory in ’78. Er…’79. Er…’80. Er…’84. Er…never mind, Reagan quashed the proposed regulation.

Or how 'bout '89-'95 Dodge Spirits, Plymouth Acclaims, and Chrysler LeBarons and Saratogas with the shifter on the floor: in place of a prindle is a blankoff plate proudly proclaiming FRONT DRIVE.

Not so much a DIY blanking plate but putting one feature in place of another;

I had an ’87 Dodge Colt in the mid ’90s that didn’t have a clock so I bought one from the auto section at Ames. The lighter was in a recessed indentation in the dash, almost exactly the size of the round digital clock so I pulled the cardboard backing off the clock, gave the lighter the heave-ho, and had an illuminated clock for $3!

The ’68 Opel Kadett I had in the late ’70s came with the usual 3-hole instrument panel with the clock-hole blanked off. During one of my salvage-yard trips, I found the clock and ‘fixed’ the problem.

More recently, my stripper ’96 Toyota Tacoma came with blank-offs for the clock and AC button. The clock is supposed to fill a grey blank rectangle in the lower dash – not really noticeable behind the steering-wheel. And the aftermarket Sony radio added a clock anyway.
Without AC, there was a small rectangular plastic plug in the lower left corner of the heat/vent control-panel.
The lack of AC was much more irritating than that plastic plug. I fixed both these issues by installing AC this spring!

If you didn’t want a cigarette lighter in a Standard Series ’64 Falcon you got a 5¢ plastic doohickey just larger than a nickel to fill the hole. It looks like a tiny silver mirror. I don’t know if Ford spent 10¢ for a plastic doohickey if you bought a Futura or a Sprint and didn’t want a cig lighter . . . ?

As for the radio ‘area’ . . . I have nothing there. When I got the car an aftermarket radio unit had been installed which contained a cassette deck. I used that cassette deck heavily and later blew the speakers out when I’d jack up the volume for 1 particular band. I couldn’t listen to Black Oak Arkansas music with the sound low and I’d listen to them often. Later, I had the blown speakers removed and the radio taken out and now there’s just a grey metal hole smack dab in the center of the dash.

The Falcon doesn’t look any worse with the hole than that dash panel covering the ’66 F100 ‘radio delete’ in the picture above.

I remember a neighbour’s ’62 with no heater, had IIRC three of those mirror blanks where Dad’s had switches. Neither had a radio, and on ours the blanking plate was loose at one end. Little fingers always wanted to pull it off!

Despite the ever-growing proliferation of options on newer vehicles, I have the feeling that panel blanks like this will become less common as time goes on; instead more functions will be contained within the touch screens of infotainment systems. My car is relatively low-trim (it’s a mid-range Fusion SE, but with *ZERO* options) and I have five panel blanks for missing items like sunroof, auto climate control, heated seats and the like–but in the future I could see the climate control and seat heaters being menus in the MyFordTouch interface with the corresponding physical button long gone.

On a lighter note, when I was a kid, a friend’s Dad had an Isuzu Trooper SE. He had a button blank near at the top of the dash, which he had labeled (in the correct font no less) “PHASERS”. As a Star Trek fan, I always appreciated that one.

some blank offs on cars that are sold in other world markets may be for options or features not available at any price here in N. Am. i have a fully loaded Kia which nevertheless still sports 3 or 4 blank plugs. it wasn’t until i bought a German sales brochure of the same year and model that i saw how much better equipped it was elsewhere.

I’ve wondered that too. I’ve been in a few Japanese cars that were fully loaded, yet there was still the occasional blank. So I’m not sure if they got more options elsewhere. Or they just leave a couple blank spots just in case they want to use that spot for a new option in later model years. I’ve seen that, but I don’t know if it was truly planned or it just worked out that way.

I noticed something similar recently. Mk1 and early Mk2 Ford Sierras with the high-spec lower dash panel have a couple of blanks either side of the ashtray, but none of my NZ/UK brochures said what they were for…and then I bought a German Sierra brochure and discovered that was where the heated seat switches go.

My pretty fully loaded 2016 Tacoma TRD has at least one blank plug to the left of the steering column. Off-road/overland enthusiasts love to add extra switches so these blank locations which take standard Toyota rockers are appreciated by many Taco enthusiasts. But for 2017 my model now has a power sliding rear window using that location for the switch. Why couldn’t the power window be ready for the 2016 model year, which was a major redesign with all-new powertrain and interior? Of course, even for 2017 you can’t get power seats in a Tacoma … even a $40K Tacoma.

The Gen1 Taurus L (and the rare GL whose original buyer ordered delete options) had the starkest blank-out covers for the door-panel holes where power window and power door lock switches normally were. They weren’t even the interior color, just black inserts.

I always thought the 1965-’68 Ambassadors and Classics which lacked A/C had plates so big they mocked the owner for being a cheapskate…but in retrospect, their color and finish matched that of the dash-vent assembly on A/C-equipped cars, and had the model name in the font matching the outside model emblems. I never really noticed in my mom’s ’65 Amby, until years later I bought my ’65 convertible WITH A/C. They coulda been worse!

My 2005 Avalanche has a panel under the center A/C vent that holds the Stabilitrak switch. On older models, there was a keyed switch that turned off the passenger side airbag, back when that was still an option. If you had neither, the space was filled with a little cubby. I used it to mount the auxiliary radio interface I installed.

I can’t find a picture but the 1960 Ford that I (mostly) learned to drive on had a gigantic plate where the optional clock would have been. To make it even more obvious that one had cheaped out was that FORD was stamped prominently on the plate for everyone to see. Even worse was that the previous owner (my father bought the car used, it had been a company car for some bottom of the pyramid rep) apparently used the raised letters on the blank off plate to strike matches. Whatever had been applied to the FORD lettering to make it shine had been worn off and the letters were sort of a dingy gray/black shade.

How about the best rather than the worst? When I was growing up in Indiana in the 50’s/early 60’s radio delete plates were fairly common among that thrifty population. My grandmother’s 62 Chevy II (the four with manual) had one but I always thought it was pretty nice – an indented, ribbed plate that had a pleasant tactile feel when I cleaned and polished it for her at the car wash. Here’s a pic of a similar dash with the plate and a separate pic of the plate that shows it better.

Tom, you’ve definitely hit on a pet peeve of mine. Like you, I order my cars loaded so I usually avoid the issue, but it drives me nuts. Constant reminder: “you cheap bastard, you skipped _______ when you got the car.” I remember that the ’90 and ’91 Honda Accord (my brother had a ’90 and my Pop a ’91) had a very prominent “blank” just above the HVAC controls next to the rear defrost. Pop’s was a loaded SE, so it was especially annoying.

The Accord had a bank of three panels in that location. One was used for the rear defroster, closest to the driver. The middle blank was for the optional fog lamps (dealer-installable on any trim level,) and the third was used in Japan for the optional-but-commonly-ordered parking pole (a JDM equivalent to curb feelers.)

The next generation kept a similar design, but had the clock in the middle flanked by the two blanks.

Some fantastic candidates in the comments above for the worst blanks! My favourite is the 1988-91 DA series Australian Ford LTD. There was one blank on the dashboard above the trip computer and air vents, and I remember Wheels magazine saying at the time “the blanked out button must be for one of the only two factory options available: metallic paint or a tow bar”… 14-year-old me found that hysterically funny at the time… 😉

Ex GFs mother had a well loaded 91 Ford LTD yep same blank so I dont know what was missing.
My brother has a one of one built(according to Ford) XR8 Falcon though what is has or lacks is yet to be determined its the only one according to the VIN.

Strippers were the most common thing here in Chile when I was a boy. We had a huge “luxury tax” for everything like power windows, A/C, etc., so all cars had those blanks.
Someone told me (I think it was my dad but I’m not 100% sure) that those blanks were there to install additional switches for fog lights, back-up lights, a second horn, etc.
I believed. I even found that it was cool! Imagined the car makers thinking of the owner’s own ideas about new lights or accessories!

Trucks actually have that. Internationals usually have a row of blanks for upfitters to install accessory switches-my old work truck had them for the cargo box light and power liftgate. I think most Ford trucks and vans come with a switch panel, at least in the work-truck trim levels.

My ’15 RAM 2500 Tradesman has a row of five (I think) switches for just that purpose. All you have to do is tap into the ready-to-use terminals under the hood. I think that was an automatic add with the plow prep package (I don’t plow, the truck was used by the dealer for one winter to plow their lot, and I picked it up at about 30% off MSRP with only a few hundred on the odo and full warranty based on my date of purchase).

The upfitter switches are optional on the Ford trucks, and it is not a cheap option running several hundred dollars as it isn’t just a bank of switches as they actually control relays and as mentioned include wiring to under the hood. As I mentioned elsewhere if you don’t go for that option you get a storage cubby instead.

3 of my first 4 cars were Saab 96 V4’s. The V4 Deluxe (which my cars weren’t) had a tach the size of the speedometer, and a different dash to accommodate it. The dash was a flat piece of sheet metal; things were simple in those days.

The good news was that I didn’t have to look at a blanking plate. The bad news was that if I’d been set on having a tach and maintaining stock appearance, I would have had to swap out the instrument panel.

I think the worst ones are for cars that did not even have options available that would fit the areas that the blanks were in.

The best(at least for me) was the ones on my 1990 Volvo 240. If the car did not have volt meter or mini tach, then there were these 4 squares under the radio. I used one to add a aftermarket volt meter(a must with a 240DL)

There there are the ones in my 1997 Pontiac Trans Sport dome light. They look like regular switches. The blanks stand out on the pontiac because the actual switches are gray but on the Venture and Silhouette, all of them are black so they look real.

Quite the stripper Custom your neighbor had. And they didn’t even spring the extra few bucks for back-up lights. I wonder what kind of transmission was in that ’64? (I’m always curious about 1964 model-year Fords).

I just remembered- my first car was a loaded ’99 Honda Accord coupe, as I was a bit of an idiot straight out of college. That car literally had every factory option, but there were still some knockout plates strewn through the interior. Perhaps there were were some dealer-installed options that needed them, or maybe Honda wanted to hedge their bets before the mid-cycle refresh if they wanted to add features.

Tom, thanks for jogging my memory- I definitely remember that being the case, and that the fog lights were a dealer installed option. The last thing I wanted was for the dealer to be messing around with the electrical system on a brand new car.

When I was a kid, my parents had His-and-Hers Volvo 200s. Dad’s was the 264 with PRV V6 (cursed), leather, manual, all the power goodies. Mom drove ad the 246 wagon, automatic, manual windows and locks.

The really frustrating ones were frequently in 80s and early 90s Japanese cars, where there were button blanks you couldn’t replace with actual buttons at any price in the US, because they were for JDM-only options.

My 1992 Mazda B2600i 4×4 is one of these… no matter what options you got, you’d still have at least one button blank on the dash

I had a stripped 1998 Mitsubishi Mirage as a beater several years ago, and the blank panels all over the interior led me to find and install a clock, cruise control switch, and power mirror switch (and tach-equipped cluster) just to have the appearance of looking upscale. That car was so cheap it didn’t even have the wiring for the clock or tachometer present, which was a surprising exception to the common practice of base/uptrim cars sharing the same wiring harnesses regardless of equipment.

I have this blank spot right on the drivers door of the ’10 T&C I drive. It reminds me every day, that I’m turning into my Dad…
When growing up, we had a 78 Chevy Malibu, and of course the back door windows didn’t roll down. After roasting thru my childhood, I SWORE, I’d never buy a car that lacked that feature. I never even noticed the blank switch spot while test driving my van, and mine is still the only minivan I’ve ever seen that has non-rolling down windows… (even the “C/V” stripper delivery van where I work, has 4 opening windows)

That blank is probably for folding power mirrors, which on the Town & Country would likely have only been available for the minimum number of units that were exported to Europe, or something like that.

And it might not even be for the Town & Country. Owing to the DaimlerChrysler merger, that’s a Mercedes-Benz switch panel, and the power-folding function would be mainly for Mercedes-Benz cars, not Chryslers.

My 59 Hillman had two blanking plates in the instrument panel for heater controls it didnt have one, the blanking panesl have since been lost as I fitted a correct heater unit, there one blanking panel in my Citroen which has most things fitted, only remote locking and auto wipers were left out but which one would occupy a small space on the mirror adjust panel? the owners book doesnt explain and the car I wrecked for parts didnt help it had the same blank.

One of the strangest I’ve seen was in an 80’s F250. The XLT model has a digital clock as an option. The clock was housed in a plastic surround that extended down over the radio. We had the clock, but the surround was cracked. The dash squeaked, and squeaked. After trying hot glue, epoxy, model glue, and electrical tape, our family broke down. Off to the pick a part for a piece of plastic. Lo and behold we find a minty F150 with no clock. My dad figures you just pop off the blank off plates and you’re good to go right? Ummm, no. Ford molded those blank off plates in there. If you want a clock, you gotta fire up the Dremel and cut the plates out. The other quirk was manual windows and power door locks. Ford made some crummy cars in the 80’s, but they were on point with those trucks. It ran like a top for 170,000 miles. Eventually the upstate NY winters caught up with it.

In the ’70s and early ’80s most General Motors cars began being equipped with factory A/C. These cars got some extra vents in the dashboard, including inboard and outboard sides of the dash that weren’t fitted to non-A/C cars. Earlier on, GM would make two version of the dash cover, with and without holes, to suit cars whether they were equipped with A/C or not. Later a trim piece would cover the whole area, with extra vents in A/C equipped cars – an easier solution. But by around 1980 with most cars being airconditioned, GM got lazy about non-A/C cars. Color-keyed (if necessary) shaped panels just filled in for where the missing vents would go, like at the far right in the ’80 Chevy Malibu shown here. I recall the Citation being the same way.

If you bought a Pontiac Phoenix, or LeMans from this period, you would get two big round nacelles in front of you, one with a speedometer and odometer, and on that unless you order either the analog clock or the tachometer, would just get a blank illuminated faceplate that read “PONTIAC” and had the proper hashmarks for the clock that wasn’t there.

The Malibu went to the same sort of dash layout for ’82, jettisoning the strip speedometer for a round one, and putting the clock in the right-hand binnacle. Unless you were too cheap to order the clock, in which case you get a big dial o’ nothing. My ’82 was graced with a nice big blank dial there, with hashmarks that did not correspond to anything in particular.

The molded ‘stitching’ in the blue plastic of the steering wheel of my folks’ last Volvo, an 88/89 740 wagon. Possibly around the instrument binnacle too, I don’t remember.

Particularly egregious in that a) everything else on the car was so solid, functional and sensible, and b) no-one buying that model (the ‘strippedest’ one, I’d guess) would’ve been under the impression there would be stitchable materials in there in the first place and c) hard blue plastic never comes with stitches wherever it is and whatever it is doing (though some corners of the internet may dispute that I’m happy to be ignorant)

I think early Austin Allegros gave you a speedo-sized set of cross hairs in place of a tacho or clock

The 1953 Studebaker radio delete plate was always a winner for us losers — a bright chrome plate in the middle of the dash, in the outline of a radio, with the letters r a d i o embossed in the locations of the non-existent buttons.

1992-1996 F-150s not equipped with four-wheel-drive got this lovely blankout (look toward the passenger side of the dash and you’ll see it). Not only was it a blankout, but it had where each button and the display would be, so you couldn’t help but know you didn’t get four-wheel-drive.

Porsche’s implementation is particularly heinous, because the cars are so expensive. Nobody *ever* gets all the button blanks filled. There’ll be some unobtainium option for a different market, and in its place will be one of these blanks. And woe be unto you if—as in this instance— you have an odd number of active buttons.

Buddy of mine has a Focus ST. There appears to be a plate on the steering column where the traditional rotary ignition switch was deleted for the Push Button Start. You can see the push button on to the right of the column in the photo. I guess it saved money on tooling costs and assembly time and complexity with multiple part numbers (read: time)

My 2015 Golf SportWagen had that, too, since it had the proximity key, but they used the blank as the induction sensor to start the car, in case the key battery were to die and the car couldn’t detect it elsewhere in the cabin.

I have a ’15 Nissan Versa SV, which has key starting. But it’s obvious where on the dash a pushbutton would go, because there’s a faint (but noticeable) bit of molding flash in a circle to the right of the gauge cluster.

Pushbutton start-equipped cars don’t escape poor plastics … the flash is just on the column instead of the dash.

I am amused that so many cars come with “push button starting” and that it is considered to be a big deal. I’m old enough to remember when cars were switching over to being started with only the ignition key, and that was considered to be progress. The first car of my parents’ that I can really remember was a 1950 Ford that was purchased late in 1956, which would make me around five years old at the time. At some point in the Ford’s relatively brief stay at our house I was practicing “driving” while it was in the garage. I mastered shifting the three on the tree and decided to see what happened if you pushed the starter button. If the car was in gear what happened was the car jumped forward a few feet at which point it was stopped by the garage wall. Fortunately no real damage to the car or the wall.

The four “wings” flanking the dash panel. On a fully-equipped GT convertible, you had on the left side, headlights on top, fog lights on the bottom, and on the right side, hazards on top and top open/close on the bottom.

My ’88 LX coupe, having neither a convertible top nor special fog lights, has the two bottom switches there, unmarked and non-functional.

I’ve always wanted to label them in a 007 kind of way and make them flippable, so I could send out an imaginary oil slick to the cars behind me, or threaten to eject an unruly passenger…

The best ‘worst’ blank panel imho is the one found in the 1982-1986 Citroen BX. The BX has a very Star Trek-esque 80’s dash (known over here as the ‘Lego-dash’) with 4 switches on the sides next to the instrument panel.
The two switches on the right side were used on all models and a 3rd one on the left side was intended for optional fog lights – the car in the picture has these. But the 4th switch is just blank and non-functional. An option for it didn’t even exist.
I guess they started designing the dashboard before thinking about what it was intended to do – not unusual being Citroen 🙂